Trump gets plan to beat ISIS

Washington -- President Trump received a set of options for escalating or transforming the war on the Islamic State. This may lead him to increase the presence of American military on the ground. 

It does not recommend that we "bomb the sh** out of them."

Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis (aka "The Monk") briefed top national security officials at the White House on the proposal initiated by the Pentagon. It includes military recommendations and proposals for ways of starving ISIS of funds and how to combat them online where they've recruited and turned thousands of psychopathic Muslims into jihadists.

Disclaimer: not all Muslims are psychopathic jihadists, but all jihadists are psychopathic Muslims.

It isn't known when President Trump will 'own' the undeclared war he inherited from his incompetent predecessor. Thus far, the campaign against ISIS has pushed them back in Iraq but Syria has been less militarily productive for U.S.-led forces. 

The president isn't expected to offer any detail when he addresses a joint session of Congress tonight (Tuesday). 

Some of Mr. Trump's options may be the deployment of more U.S. troops to Iraq or to Syria. The first option could incur political problems for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi.

The rules of engagement could also be modified--hopefully they will be. Under Obama, the Pentagon insisted that American forces might sometimes find themselves in combat but were not on a combat mission, a twisted and tortured explanation to protect Obama, not the U.S. forces, from political criticism.

Of late, our troops have moved closer to the front lines and Mr. Trump could change the rules further.

We could also increase aid to the Kurds, but that would risk the ire of our NATO partner Turkey. Iraq's government also fears the prospects that the insurgent Kurds might seek their own state.

Mattis is against Trump working closer with Russia or taking steps toward fulfilling his campaign pledge to create "safe zones" for Syrians fleeing the war, among other options.

President Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week and said his goal was to "totally obliterate ISIS." He also promised "working with out allies, we will eradicated this evil from the face of the earth."

Hyperbole or "bomb the sh** out of them?"

"I don't talk about military response," Trump said. "I don't say, 'I'm going into Mosul in four months.' Then three months later, 'We are going to attack Mosul in one month,'" he said in a mocking tone (once believed to be a gesture he made to mock a disabled reporter).

President Trump likes to keep certain things a secret, particularly his future military plans and his past tax returns.

I don't blame him one bit.




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China fires back at Mattis about E. China Sea islands

Beijing -- A Chinese spokesman claims  the U.S. is compromising the stability of the East Asia region. This comes after Secretary of State James Mattis' remarks about our commitment to defend Japanese territory including the island group that China is claiming it owns.

Lu Kang, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the U.S. should not discuss the issue, as he made the standard "tic-a-lock" sign of zipping his lips to show us he means business.

China is claiming sovereignty over the very small uninhabited islands, known in Japanese as the Senkaku and in Chinese as Diaoyu. In English, we just call them Little Frick and Frack.

The U.S.-Japan treaty of 1960 is "a product of the Cold War, which should not impair China's territorial sovereignty and legitimate rights," Lu said in a statement on the ministry's website.

"We urge the U.S. side to take a responsible attitude, stop making wrong remarks on the issue involving the Diaoyu islands' sovereignty, and avoid make the issue more complicated and bringing instability to the regional situation," said the 'Kangster.'

Secretary of Defense Mattis, on his first Asian trip, spoke in Tokyo saying the Trump administration will stick to the previous U.S. stance that the U.S.-Japan security treaty applies to defending Japan's continued administration of the Senkaku islands (aka Little Frick and Frack).

The islands were under U.S. administration after WWII but returned to Japan in 1972. China cites historical evidence for its claim to the islands, and when Japan moved to nationalize several of them in 2012, China went ballistic--figuratively speaking. 

It set off anti-Japanese riots in China and they dispatched ships and aircraft to the area around them as a challenge to Japanese control.

The nation that brought us wonton soup and General Tso's Chicken registered its displeasure with Mattis' remarks he made Friday in South Korea in which he said the Trump administration is committed to carrying through on a deal reached by the Obama administration with Seoul last year. 

The deal is to deploy a high-end U.S. missile defense system known as the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to South Korea this year. It would be used to defend South Korea and Japan against a North Korean missile attack.

With the lunatic leader 'Kim of the North' playing war games with missiles as if he got them from "the App Store," you cannot blame them for wanting to protect themselves.

China doesn't like THAAD because it would allow us to spy deep into northeastern China with the powerful radar system it uses. This would give us the ability to observe Chinese military movements and the secret ingredient to lobster cantonese.

On Friday, Lu Kang said China's "resolute opposition to the deployment . . . remains unchanged and will not change," adding that it "will jeopardize security and the strategic interests of regional countries, including China, and undermine the strategic balance in the region."

Chinese officials and academics anticipate more turbulence with the Trump administration after the president spoke with the president of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China thinks they own.

President Trump raised concerns over China's military buildup in the South China Sea, and accused the of currency manipulation and unfair trade policies. He also alleged that Beijing wasn't doing enough to pressure North Korea into cutting out the crap with their ballistic missile tests.


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